ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

Monite Sune 26, 2023

שׁופר Shofar

KO E ME‘AIFI

JUDGES 7:16

AND [GIDEON] DIVIDED THE 300 MEN INTO THREE THEM AND EMPTY JARS, WITH TORCHES INSIDE THE JARS. COMPANIES AND PUT TRUMPETS INTO THE HANDS OF ALL OF

FAKAMAAU 7:16

Pea na‘a ne vahevahe ‘a e toko tolungeau ko e vāhenga ‘e tolu, pea na‘a ne tuku ke nau to‘o talupite kotoa pē, mo ha nge‘esi sioki, pea mo e ngaahi tūhulu ‘i he loto sioki.

Gideon's itty-bitty army looked like students leaving pottery class on their way to band practice. No AR-15s, no grenades, just clay jars, torches, and a shofar in hand. The shofar, a well-known Hebrew instrument crafted from a hollowed-out ram's horn, was used in Israelite worship and battle. Under cover of night, Gideon's army broke their jars, raised high their torches, and blasted the shofar. The Midianite military, berserk with panic, turned swords on one another. Israel vanquished their foe without even unsheathing their swords.

The Messiah's final victory will happen when "he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call" (Matt. 24:31). "The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God" (1 Thess. 4:16). All this will happen "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed" (1 Cor. 15:52). That blast from the celestial shofar will sound from one end of creation to the other, to announce the defeat of death and the unending triumph of our resurrected Lord.

Ready our ears, O Lord, and prepare our hearts to rejoice at the shofar blast of resurrection.